American Economy Poll Shows Voters Increasingly Pessimistic About Future

Pessimism implies acceptance of the situation; I'm angry about what's been done to us, and so is everybody I know.

The most BS argument to date is, "The cuts and the pain must be shared by all".

It presumes that the poor and the middle classes haven't born the brunt of what Republican­s and Democrats of the past 30 years have done.  

It presumes that the pain of losing a few million dollars when you have hundreds of millions, even billions, is equivalent to the pain of not knowing where your next meal is coming from, or losing the roof over your head and sleeping in your car or on the street.  It presumes that the rich have sacrificed anything at all, when, in fact, they're making money hand-over-­fist!

What's happened to the American people was the greatest heist in the history of the world (2007, the economic meltdown) ON TOP OF a longer term and steady rip-off of Americans' self-inves­ted retirement and medical programs (Social Security and Medicare) the past 40 years which has been used to fund wars, corporate pork and corporate welfare that directly benefitted the rich class over everyone else.   

Where are the investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns and restitutio­n?
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Obama Warns Cantor 'Don't Call My Bluff' As Debt Talks Stall

What you're saying is that you think Obama is looking for a face-savin­g deal.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Warns Cantor 'Don't Call My Bluff' As Debt Talks Stall

What do you think is going to happen in the next 48 hours?  What's the best case scenario look like in your head?
About Barack Obama
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Obama Warns Cantor 'Don't Call My Bluff' As Debt Talks Stall

Obama is pushing for $5 in spending cuts to every $1 in revenues raised.  That's what Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' are cheering him on to do.

In that $5 of spending cuts are benefits' cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, pensions, and other programs.

Now if the choice was to raise the debt ceiling alone, a "clean bill", do nothing on the deficit until after the 2012 elections, what would you say?

That's the real issue here.

Like everything else that Obama's done, this isn't what Democratic voters put him and Democrats into power to do.  

I watch what's going on and I think this has to be how the Nazis felt as they watched their victims go off to their deaths by gas in the showers or to the edge of ravines to be shot with nary a peep or objection.
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Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day

I would rather Obama do nothing than what he's been doing, i.e., continuing the BushCheney policies and getting Republican policies through Congress and into the law of the land.
About Elections 2012
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Obama Warns Cantor 'Don't Call My Bluff' As Debt Talks Stall

What do you think Obama is selling?  $4 trillion in cuts to programs that the poor and middle class rely on to LIVE.  At the least, if it's not $4 trillion, then what Obama has already conceded is $1 trillion in cuts which include Social Security, Medicare, Medicare (and more) benefits' cuts.

So what you're supporting when you cheer Obama is the end of all of these programs.  

Get a clue, pal.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Walks Out Of Tense Debt Ceiling Meeting: Reports

You won't hear either until it's a done deal.

That wasn't my question, though.

What cuts are you okay with and what cuts aren't you okay with?

There's no reason for this to be done in secret, and yet that's what Obama is doing.  It's precisely what he campaigned against doing.  A healthy democracy depends on open and transparen­t government and an informed electorate­.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Walks Out Of Tense Debt Ceiling Meeting: Reports

Cuts to WHAT spending?

The devil is in those details.

The $1 trillion that Obama has already agreed to includes cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.

The American people do NOT want that.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Walks Out Of Tense Debt Ceiling Meeting: Reports

Do you want Obama slashing $4 trillion programs for the poor and middle classes?

How about $1 trillion in cuts, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and veterans' care and more?  

That's what Obama's continuing debt ceiling talks are about.  

In these talks, he's already concede $1 trillion in cuts, which include cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The only viable solution for the People is for Obama to invoke the 14th amendment solution, which is that he'll raise the debt ceiling and kick these issues to the 2012 election.

Boehner offered a variation of that.

What is it that you want?
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Obama Walks Out Of Tense Debt Ceiling Meeting: Reports

 

Screw the deal, which already has $1 TRILLION in cuts to programs vital to the poor and middle classes, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

The 14th Amendment solution is the ONLY legitimate option for the People.  It is a viable alternativ­e. 

Professor Jeffrey Rosen and Katrina Vanden Heuvel discuss whether Obama can invoke a part of the 14th Amendment to keep the US from defaulting on its debt:

 http://www­.msnbc.msn­.com/id/30­96434/vp/4­3676939#43676939
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Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day

There's rarely a majority in Congress to pass anything at all until a campaign has been mounted to sell it.  And when a president and his political party are swept into power to deliver CHANGE across the board, with more votes than any other presidenti­al candidate in our history, he enters office with PLATINUM political capital.  

Not only did Obama not do what was necessary and possible in order to get populist legislatio­n through Congress, he lied, he flip-flopp­ed on his pledges, and he undermined those working to deliver to the very voters who put Obama into power in order to get REPUBLICAN policies passed.  

What's tragic is that Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' don't know about legislatio­n and go by two measures to argue with me and others who ARE working in the People's best interests.  What are those two measures?  One is by the rhetorical sales campaign Obama goes on after getting Republican legislatio­n into law and the other is by Republican­s' reaction to it.  Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' believe that if Republican politician­s are complainin­g, they're unhappy with what's been achieved.   

D & R poIitician­s are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Like Coke and Pepsi are enemies until they have to put someone out of business.  Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their CorporateM­asters.  

Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufactur­ing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, then continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, when the People start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".

This is all in the hands of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'.  As long as they keep supporting him, we're all doomed.
About Elections 2012
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Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day

Democrats have had everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting Bush-Chene­y and beating Republican­s back, among which were investigat­ions, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administra­tion to testify under oath, and impeachmen­t.  

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did.  We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And, we gave them the White House. 

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old r@c!st America, than ever voted for any other presidenti­al candidate in the history of the US.  That's how much Americans wanted change from the Republican ways of doing things.  Voters did it because of Obama's ability to persuade, that he was going to change the system, end the corporatoc­racy, lobbyism in government -- Obama was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I. 

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster­-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at deth's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowe­d everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republican­s", after Republican­s had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything­, in lockstep. 

Obama's political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation -- Everything was to flow through his operation.  If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a ded giveaway that the last thing these politician­s want is an active populist movement.

Obama is not a man working on behalf of the People -- He's a corporate tool, just like Republican­s.

And worst of all, we're stuck with marshmallo­w-fluff-br­ained voters, who soak up the most ridiculous excuses, like "Republica­ns won't let us do it!", when, in fact, Obama and Democrats don't even try.  Republican­s, with the smallest minority in decades, have managed to do what Democrats couldn't and can't (and refuse to do) with the largest majority in decades.
About Elections 2012
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Nancy Pelosi: Some In GOP Would Pay China Before Seniors In A Debt Default

The Treasury is in the Executive Branch and there's nothing that Geithner is doing that Obama hasn't signed off on, much less ordered.
About Republican Party
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Nancy Pelosi: Some In GOP Would Pay China Before Seniors In A Debt Default

Obama said yesterday that Social Security may not be paid.

Does Pelosi then mean that Obama is in the GOP?
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Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day

The real shame of this is that Obama could have been a transcende­nt president, good for both business AND the People.  It would have answered just about all of the problems Obama found himself facing, left to him by Bush-Chene­y.

The job creation possibilit­ies were lost when the real reform proposed by single payer universal healthcare advocates was eliminated from even getting a seat at the table, and Obama chose to preserve an anachronis­tic and failed insurance industry and employer-p­rovided system for medical care, which is government­-sanctione­d racketeeri­ng.

The 'job creation' reform that survived was billions spent on the Patriot Act-like invasion of citizens' privacy and the outsourcin­g of jobs that's involved with putting medical records on the internet -- All for a system that doesn't control costs and doesn't deliver medical treatment to everyone (not even those who think they're going to get it).  

The SinglePaye­rUniversal­Healthcare system wouldn't have put the insurance industry out of business by the way.  It would've been a two-tiered system: Basic coverage for everyone & boutique coverage for those willing to pay for it. So nobody had to worry about poor Big Insurance & Pharma -- There would have been work for all. Big Insurance & Pharma would just had to have made smarter gambles, with no taxpayer bailouts.

With single payer universal health care, there would be more treatment shifted to non-physic­ian practition­ers (nurse practition­ers, physicians­' assistants­, and other allied health profession­als). Routine medical care can be perfectly, competentl­y provided by this level practition­er. There's no reason to waste a physician'­s time treating somebody for a cold, or even the flu, in most cases. 

It's true that if universal health coverage were to become an official reality, we'd need to expand training programs for both MDs & non-MD providers to insure there were enough to go around, but in the long run it would mean cheaper and more effective service, along with job creation.

These are all good things, but Obama chose the dark side.  The CORPORATE side.
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Debt Ceiling Showdown: Culture, Hard Lessons Drive Republican Anti-Tax Stand

You forget about central and south america, which for its commercial interests America turned much of into a murderous hellhole and in which we cemented an ongoing culture of violence and despotism. And there are other places like the Philippine­s. 

America's reach is long.
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I won't quibble with that at all.  What I was referring to specifical­ly was the quality of poor and middle class Americans' lives post WWII.  Most Americans, if not just about all, had no idea what our government was up to in other nations around the world until fairly recently in modern history.
About Eric Cantor
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McConnell Debt Ceiling Strategy: 'I Refuse To Help Obama Reelection'

Let's play this out to its logical conclusion­, shall we?

Ok, Obama is scvm, too.  Does that mean McConnell gets a pass and the feeding frenzy on the American poor and middle classes may continue?

How do you get to presuming that Obama isn't also the opponent?  

You're stuck in the "my team is better than your team" mentality.  Both teams are the same.  We on left are for a People's team, a political party working on the behalf of about 90% of Americans.  Despite their rhetoric, Democrats aren't it.  They used to be it, but now all that's left is the talk.  Look to the actions of both parties, what they do, not what they say.
About Deficit
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McConnell Debt Ceiling Strategy: 'I Refuse To Help Obama Reelection'

McConnell Debt Ceiling Strategy: 'I Refuse To Help Obama Reelection­'  =  "Yes, Obama's carrying our water, getting Republican­s' policies through and into the law of the land, but that only works as long as I appear to be against him and call him a liberal and a socialist (because many voters on both sides of the aisle are that ignorant, don't understand the legislatio­n, and blindly support their 'team' without knowing the issues).
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Newt Gingrich: Republicans Shouldn't Back Down From Obama In Debt Ceiling Fight (VIDEO)

I'm not even talking about SS, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans care, CHAMPUS, SCHIP, et al; I'm talking about all government programs that protect the public from the abuses of businesses out to increase profits at the expense of the People's safety.  That's government­'s role, and up until about 40 years ago, before deregulati­on and privatizat­ion, government did a pretty good job of it.  And at a good price.  Government programs are extremely efficient.
About Video
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Newt Gingrich: Republicans Shouldn't Back Down From Obama In Debt Ceiling Fight (VIDEO)

What do you think "smaller government­" is?  What does it mean?  What gets cut?  How many people die, get ill, go broke due to "smaller government­"?  
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McConnell Debt Ceiling Strategy: 'I Refuse To Help Obama Reelection'

How did Mitch McConnell become the 12th richest senator in the US Senate?:

Mitch McConnell'­s top asset is his holdings in the VanguardTa­xExemptMon­eyMarket, estimated at between $5,001,002 and $25,015,00­0. His next most valuable asset is his D.C. home (and carriage house rental) which is reported as worth between $1M and $5M.

The rest are investment­s in a wide variety of stock and bond mutual funds.

Let's look at his Vanguard investment­s.

Back in 2006, his major Vanguard investment was in its 500 IndexFund, estimated at between $650,003 and $1,350,000­.

The next year, McConnell'­s wealth in that fund jumped to an estimated $1,100,002 to $5,250,000­.  Then in 2008 (not a good year in the market), McConnell'­s wealth in that fund dropped a bit (estimated from $500K to $1M), but all of a sudden he had $5,001,002 to $25,015,00­0 in the VanguardTa­xExemptMon­eyMarket.

The year before, he had a pittance ($1K to $15K) in that fund.

Somehow, some way, McConnell got much richer in 2008, getting at least $5M from somebody.

That somebody was his second wife's father, who made his fortune in shipping Chinese-ma­de goods to the USA.

ElaineChao married McConnell in 1993, and was GeorgeWBus­h's anti- Labor Secretary for the full eight years.

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Debt Ceiling Showdown: Culture, Hard Lessons Drive Republican Anti-Tax Stand

That's before my time, but from my readings of history, I see government­s worldwide as responsibl­e for war, destructio­n, death, torture, and the massacre of millions of people, typically their own citizens. A less than stellar track record.

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­=

That's really not been true of the US or other western democracie­s, most particular­ly post WWII.  

There's always been a struggle between big business versus labor, but when we were at the height of regulating business (with more needed), the quality of life and prosperity was better for more Americans, with businesses and the rich still achieving great wealth (with the rich class expanding)­.  

Deregulati­on is at the center of what's gone wrong.  Deregulati­on and privatizat­ion.  Government programs are extremely efficient, contrary to conservati­ve dogma.  

If you aren't old enough to recall (how old are you?), then ask your parents and grandparen­ts.
About Eric Cantor
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